Luke Perrin
Luke Perrin
Two months ago, I wrote and published a piece calling for Dave Doeren to be fired from his position as head football coach, attributing failures in his tenure to the inherent quality of other ACC programs and acceptance of the status quo of mediocrity that has seemed to veil NC State’s football program for decades. Ironically enough, Doeren’s team exceeded all my expectations in the following two games, performing admirably against both UNC-Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt.
Flash-forward to mid-January: football season has met its end and the staple of Tobacco Road athletics is chugging along through the ever-competitive conference play. Basketball is upon us, and NC State is bad. There’s no sugar to coat the truth and little positivity to be found in the fray, as the results speak for themselves. Early in the season there were some concerns with the offense spreading the ball that I anticipated being sorted out as the season chugged along, but in the midst of ACC play, those concerns seem to have manifested themselves even more in the team’s performance and it’s impossible to brush them off in hopes that some miraculous turnaround is coming in the near-future.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the harbinger of negativity for everything related to NC State Athletics. I desperately want us to win. With that, I can’t pretend to know the intricacies of coaching an ACC team to success or, for that matter, even a middle-lower-tier school, but even the most casual sports fan can see the problems that exist in plain sight. The defense isn’t performing and neither is the offense.
ESPN published a column in 2011 describing defense as the biggest hurdle that Mark Gottfried had to overcome in order to succeed at NC State, arguing that Gottfried’s history at Alabama showcases that his offensive prowess far exceeds his defensive ability, and the same has rung true during his tenure at NC State.
Georgia Tech is 172nd in the nation in three-point percentage, shooting an abysmal 34.8 percent behind the arc. On Sunday evening, they were 10-18 in that range. Guards were left uncontested, and the Yellow Jackets capitalized with wide-open shots that were attracted to the rim like opposite charges of a magnet. NC State is currently ranked 274th in points allowed per game, which is the worst in the conference.
Poor defensive ability can be voided if the offense performs, as indicated by UNC-Chapel Hill ranking 140th in points allowed but remaining in the Top-10, but the offense remains steadfast and seemingly incapable of performing. This is perhaps the biggest surprise of the season, with Dennis Smith Jr. being the only player living up to pre-season potential that is mentioned around campus daily.
Omer Yurtseven has looked almost invisible on the court, alongside all of the big-men on the roster. Interior play is desolate, even if Yurtseven showed some progress by way of rebounding well in Tuesday’s win against Pitt. With the exception of a flashy dunk occasionally, there has been very little coming from the individuals who are taller and more looming than anyone on the roster. The raw talent of Abdul-Malik Abu and BeeJay Anya seems to be identical to what it was when they were mere freshmen and that doesn’t bode well for the success of the offense.
Rebounds don’t catch themselves and even if they did, giving Anya or Abu the ball beyond ten feet of the goal doesn’t amount to ball-spacing, which ends up leading to a poor jump-shot from Smith, Terry Henderson or Maverick Rowan. That has encompassed the bulk of the offense this season and the end result hasn’t been pretty.
This season is a lost cause. While I wouldn’t consider myself to be a pessimist by any standard of the word, the probability of regaining a foot in the door of the NCAA Tournament with Louisville, Duke, Florida State and UNC-Chapel Hill remaining in the schedule is grim. While there is opportunity for the team to improve, there is ultimately very little chance of recovery after the melancholic previous affairs. Don’t let the high spirits of Tuesday’s nail-biter against Pittsburgh convince you that things have turned the page, because the same problems existed in even that affair. Pitt’s shooters were left uncontested at the wing all game long and it’s a miracle that they weren’t able to connect in the time that it mattered most.
I don’t know if calling for the firing of Mark Gottfried is necessary, because it might just be a public showcase for the inevitable, with little appeasement as a result. Things are bad for the sixth-year coach and it doesn’t have anything to do with the talent on the roster. Two members of the starting lineup will most likely be lottery draft picks due to their raw potential, no matter what the team’s final record ends up being.
This is the most talented team at NC State in years but here we are, screaming profanities from the seats in PNC Arena toward the men wearing our school name on their chest. I don’t have the answer for fixing the problems that exist and apparently, neither does Gottfried. We as fans continue to beat on, as boats against the current, with our dissatisfaction and anger netting little reward.
Something needs to happen, whether it’s the extreme of turning North Carolina’s highest paid state employee into “Gott-fired,” or literally anything else; the prospect of apathetically waiting for the team to reach its full potential is impractical. This is bad and there isn’t any silver lining. Smith, Yurtseven, Henderson, Anya and likely Abu will be gone next season.
This is NC State basketball, folks. This is unacceptable basketball, folks.